The Indian benchmark indices continued its southward journey, tracking a bearish trend across markets in Asia as traders across the globe brace for a maiden US interest rate hike in almost a decade, souring risk taking appetite. Further, a slowdown in industrial output growth to the lowest level in four months in September signaled a slight loss of momentum for Asia"s third biggest economy while a pickup in the pace of consumer inflation to a four-month high in October has probably crimped room for a further interest rate cut before the end of the ongoing fiscal.

At 13:25 hours, the BSE SENSEX was trading at 25617.33, down by 249.62 points or by 0.97 per cent, and the NSE Nifty was quoting 60.45 points lower at 7764.55.

In the bearish trade so far, the BSE Sensex touched an intraday high of 25724.09 and intraday low of 25540.73, while the NSE Nifty touched high and low of 7774.8 and 7730.9, respectively.

On the macro front, data showed that India"s industrial production expanded 3.6 per cent, year on year in September 2015, compared to a revised 6.2 per cent annual rise in August 2015, led by weakness in the manufacturing and consumer non-durables sectors. Consumer inflation, the RBI"s benchmark inflation gauge rose for the third month on the trot, accelerating to 5 per cent in October 2015 from 4.41 per cent in September 2015.

On the sectoral front, capital goods and Teck stocks were leading the decline, falling 1.92 per cent and 1.52 per cent, respectively.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 2635, shares advanced were 784 while 1695 shares declined and 156 were unchanged.

Among the global peers, Asian stocks were bleeding in red as a slowdown in credit growth in China and concerns over policy tightening in the US in the near-term dampened sentiment. China"s Shanghai Composite was trading 1.5 per cent lower, while Hang Seng slid nearly 2 per cent. Japan"s Nikkei 225 plunged as a stronger yen curbed the appeal of exporter stocks.